>> now since six years ago. >> i would say if you're looking at the next year or two, i would put it way up, eight, nine ten. once you again beyond that, it becomes murkier. >> that's good. >> thank you so much for joining us, bill. >> thanks for having me on. >> make sure you join us tomorrow. right now it's time for "squawk on the street." ♪ >> good thursday morning. i'm karl quintanilla with jim cramer. what a news day. futures got a bounce when jobless claims hit 300,000, lowest in three years. we've got you covered. ten years down to 268 after those fed minutes yesterday, and then europe. greece returns to the bond market. bank of england also left rates unchanged. the best bull market of our

lifetimes. market with little changed coming off the massive rally in the secret meeting off the fed. it says it's just misunderstood. daytime at e-bay. carl icahn drops his campaign to split the company in two. gets a new board member. the biggest ipo of 2014 finally prices the low end of the range. is this the top of the ipo way? the ceo will join us. walmart goes all in for organic while other retailers report negative news. can you blame it all on the weather? first up, though, just what the doctor ordered for the bulls. all three major stock indices each rose more than 1% in yesterday's session after minutes from last month's fed policy meeting indicated the central bank may not raise interest rates any time soon. one of the so-called momentum stocks was the biggest gainer on the s&p. facebook up 7.5%. we watched that thing climb all day, jim. a lot of talk about how many growth guys are actually just taking refuge in fb. >> yeah. the analyst coverage started with jordan rohan. you've got to give him the credit.

saying listen, this is the one, that stock finished up monday and the hideous action. people come out of the fox hole and reiterate. this yesterday was about the fact that the numbers are too low. one of the things i think people are starting to distinguish is there's a company with earnings. and the ones with earnings started going up very hard. the ones without earnings, drifting up. >> your reaction to what the fed said. >> remember there was that moment where some fed official said that short rates are going to go higher. some fed official said rates are going to go lower, we heard that side of the story yesterday. it must be very confusing to people. looks like a rookie mistake maybe by the fed chief. but whatever you thought was going to hurt the bull from short rates going up, not going to, game won. >> so we're back? is that it? >> i don't want to say we're back, because tomorrow we get wells fargo and jp morgan, and judging from what jamie dimon

said, it doesn't sound like you've got the right atmosphere yet. you don't have the right interest rate curve. so i think when people say game on and then suddenly you're hit with some quarters. >> so you remain cautious in advance of the bank earnings tomorrow? >> yes. joe cassidy came on squawk this morning. he said the one thing they have going for them is everybody's cautious. that is absolutely true. the valuations aren't that good. but if you go over that letter, the expenses have gone up dramatically because of the government, but we're still not making as much on deposits and loans because we're just not loaning like we could. to me the group is under valued. but the earnings power of the group is called directly into question by none other than the best banker there is so to speak. >> people should read dimon's letter talking about the most difficult, nerve racking experience i've ever dealt with professionally, talking about last year's travails at gpm. bill miller was on "squawk" today. talked about how he likes citigroup.

talked about how he likes sentiment toward the market right now that investors are not getting over their skis. take a listen to bill miller. >> we may be in the best bull market that we're likely to see in our lifetime coming off that 660 level. if we can maintain very low inflation. if interest rates are low. if growth can continue globally at a slow pace, valuations are likely to get a lot higher. >> in addition to citi, likes ibm. says revenue won't continue to drop there. what do you think? >> ibm is going to be up. revenue city is a little problematic. great quote here from jamie dimon. it seems that just about everyone has become a risk expert and sees risk behind every rock. they don't want to miss it like they did in 2008. they want to be able to say "i told you so." i think that defines the average investor, the average investor wants to look really smart. wants to say get out now because it looks really bad. average investor wants to say i'm willing to pass, because when it does peak, which it hasn't now for how many s&p points, when it does peak they'll look smart. i think that was the most

important quote. a lot of people pulling a lot of different quotes from jamie dimon's letter. the one that was the oddest, the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. a martin luther king quote. >> yes. also said paypal is a shadow bank. >> and martin luther king would call for bonuses. >> the proxy fight between e-bay and carl icahn is now over. as part of their agreement, icahn is withdrawing both his proposal and withdrawing two of his nominees to the company's board. e-bay has agreed to icahn's suggestion to appoint david dormund to the board. >> we had a chance to talk more about paypal, more about e-bay, more about the opportunity of the company. i think carl now sees the potential of our company and is now becoming i think a long-term shareholder. so i think this is a real win-win for both us and for e-bay shareholders.

>> great line of questioning from sorkin, who said this is a guy who called you clueless. and now we're all singing kumbaya. did carl get beat? >> i think it's a lose-lose for shareholders. that's a misinterpretation of what john said. i think that carl was right, not about the corporate guidance. >> you were behind his -- >> i worry that paypal is losing its edge. jamie dimon cites paypal, but one of the things he cites is the risk in silicon valley. i think paypal is at risk in silicon valley because of some other opportunities. some other plans by its competitors. so i thought that this would have been a good thing. john is such a great spokesman. i know dormund, a former neighbor of mine. and then this is the end and paypal is not going to be broken out. i think that's really a shame.

it needs to be spun off if because it's going to get its butt kicked. >> david, your thoughts. after apple, now this. whether carl's aggressive stance is paying off. >> listen, e-bay took the fight to him right from the beginning, as you guys know. they outed him in an earnings report. john donahoe joined them onset and immediately started battling. as we reported many times, this took a strange turn with carl's focus not on the merits of a spinout of paypal, but on his focus instead on the skype transaction, on what he claimed were wrong decisions made by the board of directors, in particular mr. andreson. and the fight that took place between he and carl icahn. a very interesting point for all of us, something i think we'll

continue to focus on, whether or not there are conflicts of interest. but then his two nominees were not particularly impressive, and it just seemed to never get the momentum behind a key thing, which was hey, i want you to separate paypal. which, by the way, icahn still says he wants them to do. he's just willing to now sit back and wait. >> would you expect carl to stick around as a long-term shareholder the way donahoe suggested today, david, or does he slowly exit out? >> you know, that's always a hard thing to know. icahn does stay in some of these stocks for long periods of time, so they would say he's not interested in the long-term health of the country. he can rebut that effectively with a number of different examples. so we'll see. that being said, it wouldn't be a shock were he to actually lower that stake at some point as he moves along. i think he'll converse with the board of directors, as he's allowed to, but continue to

probably try and push this case for paypal. but the bottomle is over. e-bay, of course, can claim a bit of victory here. certainly the management distraction from it is some reason why they were at least willing to consider giving him this independent director in dormund. because given where things were, e-bay was going to win. it wasn't like icahn was going to win. didn't even have a definitive proxy from him. he didn't have a great deal of momentum from him at this point. >> what's interesting to me is the stocks down pretty appreciably earlier. do you think this is because there are a lot of people who genuinely did not believe in icahn's view, and are just thrilled that this thing is staying together? >> no, i mean, i think -- and you said it many times and i was pulling a lot of shareholders over this last month. there are a lot of people who genuinely believed paypal would be better off outside of e-bay, and it would be a value creating move to a certain extent, although e-bay itself in terms of what its growth rate would look like without paypal is a

key question. and so i would assume that there was some hope, perhaps, that it would lead down that road. eventually. although i don't believe they'll be able to prevail that being icahn at the annual meeting. >> yeah, this is kind of amazing, david. i've got to tell you. if you go back in time to where this stock was when icahn announced the stake, it was looking 48, 49 because they had missed the quarter. now it is up -- even though the market's not so good, this stock is up 10%. to me, it's a mystery. >> that's a great point, jim. we all watched that rally. of course, carl has benefited from that as well. and now we return to -- they'll report earnings in the not too distant future at e-bay and we'll see how the marketplace business is going, particularly, as you say after that last quarter where there were some question marks for sure. >> david, i don't know what you mean. you're clearly dressed from the picture and you're up, so i

don't know why you're not here. but better that you phone in on the story line this. good to talk to you. see you later. >> karl, thanks. they always manage to get them right when there's news. >> david faber joining us on the phone. >> yeah, it's true. got one more deal. adp spinning off its dealer services business. a tax-free spin-off. 100% to adp shareholders. adp is known as one of those names, jim, with the best credit rating you can possibly get. i wonder if this changes that. >> this is just great news. people want pure place. i want both of these divisions. the dealer services business has always been terrific. i remember when they used to be in the quotron business. by the way, dealer, dealer service. anything related to auto service finance. allied becomes public today. all these businesses i think are good businesses. automatic data is going to go much higher. >> allied, the auto lender is going public today.

ipo price is at 25. that was the low end of the range. raising $2.4 billion. this is going to be the biggest ipo in the u.s. so far this year. all the shares coming from treasury. it's going to trade under the ticker symbol ally. we're going to bring you the company's first trade, live interview with the ceo michael carpenter later on this morning. you said yesterday the window was closing. i wondered whether that was a function of the company's getting weaker, trying to get in. or investors getting fatigued. and what this does to that narrative. >> i think there's a lot of fatigue. i think there's a sense that if we have to have one more cloud-based company, one more development stage biotech, it's just going to teeter. just looking at the aftermarket, that every single buy that you made at the aftermarket was bad that first day. and that's a really terrible sign. i think the fact that this is low end of the range again is not a good sign. even though i like these companies. i thought la quinta is a really good company. it's just that that's the fatigue.

i've got to keep selling things in order to take this stuff in. give us a break. the fact is if they did give us a break, the bankers, then the resumption of this move has much more to it. >> you're going to stick around into the 10:00 today, right? >> you kidding? >> we do have a power packed lineup. christine la guard. michael carpenter, a rare interview with the head of fizer. ceo ian reid. walter rob. microsoft's bing director. and the chairman of the cubs, tom rickets. what a day. take one more look at futures here as we see some action off the lows off those claims came in pretty good. more "squawk on the street" from the nyc in a minute. take a closer look at your fidelity green line and you'll see just how much it has to offer,

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walmart making a bigger bet on organic foods. the retailing giant striking a deal to sell wild oats organic products at lower prices. the move aimed at reviving walmart's grocery stores. we'll hear from walter rob a

little bit later on in the show. they're talking about this wild oats products at a 25% discount, not necessarily on things like milk and cheese and eggs, but when walmart decides to move in on a market like this, they'll do some damage to competitors. >> whole foods has been down, down, down. couldn't believe why it was going down. it turns out because people knew about these articles coming. we've got to ask walter robb -- walter is a total gentleman. he is not going to say that walmart will be a layover. but walmart doesn't know what it's doing in this space. i know they went to hain earlier and said listen, just give us whatever you have. in the end, people will go to whole foods. maybe they go to sprouts, which has a small form factor. the fairway has been falling by the wayside. i've got to tell you, this fresh market not doing that well. my money is on whole foods, 300-some-odd stores.

going to 1,200 stores. they are such better operators. this is why the stock has been weak. yes, it's possible it was worthy of a decline, but now that the news is out, i'm a buyer, not a seller. i did commit yesterday, didn't know why, but now i know the stock is down because of walmart. you are not going to go -- as it is, costco, which has terrific numbers today. they have a hard time with natural and organic. you've got to be in the natural and organic business to understand the ethos, to understand what it's about. >> is that a function of sourcing? because it's more fragmented from buying some of the big distributors? why wouldn't walmart have competency in this area? >> because the people -- the walmart profile is not necessarily as interested in this kind of thing.-mart profil necessarily as interested in this kind of thing. i also think, by the way, that wal-mart -- look, i've always respected wal-mart, but wal-mart has jumped into a lot of what i regard as fashionable things. it's not really worked out.

i do think -- let me be very, very clear about this. that the competition is rife, but that's where you go with the best operator and the best operator does prevail. whole foods prices are not nearly as bad. the new whole foods store models are terrific. and those who give up on whole foods now should recognize that there's a lot of people who saw this stuff coming and that's why the stocks at 51. go over the upgrade the other day, it was pretty powerful. >> family dollar with results out this morning. they're going to close 370 stores. they're going to slow their new store development. that's a contrast to say rite aid. >> family dollar, howard levine, they've really become quite a poor operator. they didn't leave out anything about why they missed. they had competition. they had macro. they had weather. it was almost as if they have simply lost their way entirely. i think dollar tree, dollar general doing better. family dollar saying that the businesses overstored. the fact that the stock isn't

down just tells me that there are a lot of people who feel like, you know what, this is the long-awaited restructuring. i don't think it is. they can close a lot a stores. but in the end, it's just not a great operator. >> you've been saying the rite aid weakness. >> my rite aid is so darn nice. i actually love it. but rite aid's move -- their prescription business is really strong. they really embraced the model. they had cheap merchandising officer. they will not come on my show. we call them all the time. you know what they say is, no! typically say, that's a difficult time. meanwhile, i'm their biggest supporter. i've loved them. will you come -- no! hi, this is jim -- no! i liked them. what happens if i didn't like them? >> they do see same store sells up. >> people writing these guys off. not me. no! >> maybe that will change now. >> it's like a high frequency trading discussion with them. no! >> when we come back, we'll get

cramer's mad dash. countdown to the opening bell. futures still in the red. we'll walk you through that greek bond offer. note offering too in just a minute.

seven minutes to the bell. let's get cramer's mad dash ahead of the market open. a lot of retail action today. >> two places i love to shop at.

first, bed, bath & beyond. this was just a bad miss last night. 1.7% comp numbers. looking for twice that. and the company, a lot of people feel like this was the beginning of another trend back. you have a lot of people saying showrooming. i think the problem with bed, bath & beyond is that they literally -- they're searching for like meaning. plus, you know, if you get the right coupon, it is killer. if you can get that 20% coupon on all goods, i thought it was only for one good. knocked off $5 this weekend. not enough to do the job. i just think this company -- it's just not executing as well as i expected. used to be great growth vehicle. >> pow about pier 1? >> pier 1 had been executing fantastically. >> they couldn't shoot straight. >> one of my bankable 21. he's missed for two straight quarters. very disappointed in him because

he's such a good merchant. now they're rolling out their o online. i think it's good. this stock might be able to go back to the 20s. some people say listen, jim, he lowered guidance. no, the thing is if we can get back to some single comp numbers and get a good online product, alex smith is a good operator, the stores are fun to go to. >> story of two retailers, that's good stuff. when we come back, allied financial make its debut. we're going to talk with the ceo. the opening bell just five minutes away. female announcer: get on board for better sleep.

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♪ ♪ ♪ [ tires screech ] chewley's finds itself in a sticky situation today after recalling its new gum. [ male announcer ] stick it to the market before you get stuck. get the most extensive charting wherever you are with the mobile trader app from td ameritrade. you are watching "squawk on the street" live from the financial capital of the world. the opening bell in 90 seconds on this thursday. busy morning all around the world, whether it's the greek bond auction, jobless claims. a ton of corporate news. and then, of course, ally financial going public here at the exchange today.

ticker ally. we're going to talk to the ceo in the next hour. treasury offering all these shares. >> very exciting. >> despite the low end. >> yeah. and remember, there's more behind it. they're going to be selling more next year. we know my travel trust totally banged by gm. but when the government was finished, that was the time. the gm news flow remains horrendous. >> today putting two engineers on leave. paid leave. >> talk about not being able to get ahead of a story. i mean, this is a pr disaster. it's just -- they just can't get ahead of the story. who goes on leave tomorrow? i mean, come on, guys. get it together. >> and yet you've not given up -- >> it's just a cheap stock and i believe in the brand, i believe in the cars. but boy, are they making it tough. they're putting the kick me sign on. kick me! remember that? >> yes, i do. not personal experience. >> no, i put the sign on people. >> how about ally? what's your thought? >> i think it's inexpensive. i think it's a big, heavy deal. if people pay up, they'll make a

mistake. if you can get it right in line, that's fine. guys have a lot of opportunities to cut costs. they do have a lot of deposits because they paid up for deposits. don't chase this, you'll be an idiot. >> that has been the general rule of thumb for some new issues over the past couple of weeks. there's the bell. a look at the s&p at the top of your screen. and as we said, allied financial celebrating its ipo. we'll talk to the ceo in the next hour over the nasdaq founders, an annual gathering of founders of leading tech companies hosting its event in new york city today. you got some go-go stuff. >> yeah, go-go boeing team to pursue inflight connectivity. this is one of the most shorted stocks i've seen in this era. i'm a member, you can go online. the rap against them is you can't use netflix. viasat has netflix capability, but it's been boxed out. this go-go will go up more than it's up right now. because this is just going to be a short squeeze of magnificent

proportions. both are very feisty. and it's really -- like, they don't like each other. it's kind of like boeing air. where i asked mcnerney, that's a friendly rivalry. no, it's not friendly at all. isn't it like harvard-yale? because he went to yale. he goes, not at all. >> if you were lucky enough to ride some of the pricelines, facebook yesterday. what would you be doing today? >> i think you've got to keep priceline. i think you've got to keep facebook. i was thinking about this this very morning. thank you for asking. the stocks are still down. i think they take a dip as profit takers come in. priceline up 47 points. that's your chance. because these have real numbers. priceline is selling at 18, 19 times earnings. facebook i think is going to have a blowout number. 2015, 2016. these are profitable companies. these are not software as a service cloud-based opportunity too great, not going to show profit. that is not the case with these companies. they are making money. a lot of it. >> brings to mind the upgrade of twitter, taking from a cell to a hold. people have called it a pretty

well-timed cell originally, as it came down. >> absolutely. >> but they say look out for a lot of lock-up expirations in may. >> twitter is not a profitable company, and you can't lump it in. twitter is one of those stocks periodically you see that. i like the company sites, like the old cayenne thing. i like the company. people like the product. i think that this was just a good declaration of victory by kanter. twitter is not facebook. twitter is expensive. facebook is inexpensive on what we call the app years, which is the way all these growth managers like to do them. the profit taking has to come facebook. just sold up 7%. i said darn it, 7%, that's going to bring up the profit takers. but that's your chance. >> interesting. i forget what their target is over at kanter on twitter. but we'll see when they post in

just a few weeks, actually. >> facebook, the bubbling here, deutsche bank comes out with a note saying basically the numbers are really better than you think, facebook. and it has numbers. that's really important. the ones that are rallying hardest have numbers. have earnings. the ones that are tepid are ones where you say, i don't know, what is that selling a modable to? it's like selling a modable to hope. >> hewlett-packard up 2% on this call. >> what a glorious day for you with packard. we've got deutsche bank liking it, putting a buy on it. morgan stanley raising numbers. pc numbers not nearly as great as we thought. this rally continues. i will take heat for saying it's cheap. people will e-mail me and say cramer, you don't understand. i actually do understand. i know the company very well. and the leverage here after they fired -- after they restructured is really magnificent. pc sales, as dell as told me, pc sales are actually very good. i think they're good for hewlett-packard. very good there. >> these numbers on pc sales for the quarter, even though the declines continue, the pace of

declines is getting a little bit better. >> people that we're almost an inflection point. all i can tell you is hewlett-packard has a lot of good businesses. they can raise the dividend again. >> i think we're going to keep our eye on post five, where ally is still waiting for the first indications. let's check in and see if bob is around. bob, you there? >> yeah, we are. and believe it or not, karl, i'm still trying to get in towards here. there's so many people here at this point. the cameras are just all over the place. we seem to get some indications already. ally financial is just ready, and just has opened. ally financial just opening, 24.25. $24.25. remember, ally financial, priced at $25, which is the low end of the $25 to $28 range, came out at $24.25. remember, $2.4 billion, this is the biggest ipo since hilton, karl. most of it going to the

treasury. ultimately the treasury will recover i think about 17.7 billion from ally and that is more than they actually put into it right now. the u.s. government now will own -- i believe the number is 17% of ally down from 37% before. a lot of people have been talking about the very tough competition that exists in this particular space right now. and i think the one to look at is sc. if you recall, sc went public down here just around the corner here at the post next to me in december. and it priced at $24 as i recall. and it is now $22 and change. so there has been a lot of competition in the automotive financing space, not just from santander, but other banks. the competition has intensified. trading down from its initial offer. you see what ally's doing. 24.61. still below the initial price. we have got some other ipos, it's been a huge week for ipos. the big day is tomorrow when

we're going to have seven of them. atamus pharmaceuticals hasn't opened yet. cicarex is also going to be opening. we're waiting for that to open as well. it's very easy to keep an eye on ipos by watching the etf for ipos. that is a simple way of watching the top 60 ipos in the last two years. they keep rotating into them as new ipos come out. and that has been down rather notably in the month of march, but it's bounced back in the last couple days as the march has stabilized. a lot of moving around parts for the overall ipo mark. you see the crowd here with some of the officials shaking hands. always a lot of fun to see officials from various parts of the company coming in and talking. i do want to quickly mention the rally we've had in china. china is up very big today. even though the trade data was very disappointing, exports unexpectedly dropped in march. there's a lot of talk about china being opened up to cross

borders. trading with hong kong. that has been a big help to that market. the talk of stimulus has also been moving. chain's up rather notably today, 1.3%. also we had a nice earnings beat overall for some of the companies that were out. family dollar, pier 1, rite aid also did fairly well overall. some of the guidance, slight disappointments. family dollar a little bit below. pier 1 had a bit lower guidance. a bit below the median point for the analyst estimates. same situation there with rite aid. really in the middle of the range. finally, credit suites. we've been talking about these growth stocks. credit suites had a very interesting story on momentum growth names, noting that in beginning of march, growth names were about 83% valuation. that dropped dramatically, down to about 47%. bottom line is they are still expensive, but they are much,

much cheaper than they were earlier. and i think the point of the story was valuations may start to get a little bit on the compelling side. here's some of the -- here's the dmms here talking about discussions, i don't know if you can get this on camera, but it's very interesting to see what's going on. havingexplaining how the stock is open. a lot of this is the education process. you see mike standing there in the corner. some of the dmms explaining how the opening process goes. these are officials from ally financial soaking up what's been going on. that's part of the fun of this overall process here. so again, we'll see if this happens. if it happened recently, where we've seen dips initially from the price, $25. and then within 20 minutes to 30 minutes, it's come above the initial offering price. so i guess the big issue right now, guys, is whether we can get ally financial back over $25. i'm sure the underwriters are trying to figure that out if they possibly can or hoping that it would happen. guys, back to you. >> all right, bob, thank you

very much. overall, jim, we mentioned icahn and e-bay at the very top. >> right. >> i think some shareholders wanted that split. >> yeah. a little disappointment in some of the ranks here. both profit taking in some names and the fact that e-bay, this was -- a split would have been timely. i wish carl hadn't -- it was a good sabre rattle. take a look at adp. it's up only $1.50. that's a real buy, because you don't need that auto dealer business within. you don't really need the separate -- i don't want to go over history, because i know he's deeply committed to keeping this the same. but i think it was a big mistake and carl should have continued to do it. ally financial, this is classic. u.s. government greedy, should have been done it. no reason the do it the way they did it. this was a big open secret. bankers got a little greedy. it's not that bad a company. but this was the chance for the government to say you know what? we want everybody to win. and the government won and

people who bought at the open lost. >> yeah. you seem a little upset about that. >> i am upset about it. because bankers, they don't understand. this is a fragile market here. which could have done something real good. you do 22, then you come back and sell it at 30 next year. it's not carpenter's fall. this is something that bankers know. they knew this thing wasn't well-placed. they knew that they didn't have the buyers, maybe it comes back up. but this is the kind of thing that happens at this stage in the cycle, where the bankers are just trying to be greedy and get that last dollar. >> it's not horrible action. >> no. it's just that you want the people to win. we paid for this thing. our country paid for it. give them a chance to make a little money. not crazy about this. >> on that negotiate let's get to rick santeli. >> hey, rick. >> good morning, carl. yesterday was a fascinating day from the minutes released from the last fed meeting. of course, we saw a bit of steepening come in. but continued to monitor the

flattening because it really has still been a year of flattening, and even the flattening that just occurred based on the meeting those minutes were from, that flattening is still half intact, meaning only half was given back. then add in all the flattening that occurred prior to that march 18th decision. and you clearly have an issue where the long end of the market is really buoyant in terms of buying, a variety of reasons. well, let's look at a two-day chart of fives. you can see what happened yesterday. see how it responded today. how much of the market didn't pay attention to that big drop in jobless claims. let's look at some year-to-date charts. you can really get a flavor for the yield curve. as you look at a yield to date of fives, tens, 30s. maybe the most important chart of all is the dollar versus the yen. there's such a symmetry to all these patterns, the only difference is where in its recent range it is. we can clearly see how those short maturities that were more aggressive in moving up because

of the eventual normalization of zero interest rate policy, that's still baked in the cake largely. and if we look at so many different issues with technical analysis. you know, it's one of those things where if the market really has a tone that's changing or a trend that's getting bigger, you're going to see it in a variety of technical applications. so when it comes to treasuries, real easy one is that death cross. the 50-day and the 200-day converging in terms of moving averages. but here's one that i think has more meat on the bone. but any technical will work when the trend's aggressive. and this technical is boons versus ten-years. that's a ten-year chart. u.s. rates either come down or european rate gos up. considering the landscape in europe, it looks as though long-end rates will most likely be moving lower. so say traders interpret some of these signals.

karl, back to you. >> some people on twitter said you guys aren't mentioning the chinese data, which we should mention. imports and exports not looking good. >> no. we're the strong country on earth right now and i think we act quite well given the fact that there was another time when you got this kind of number, you would say the sky is falling, sky is falling. this shows you again innate u.s. strength in the fact that europe is coming back. don't read into this market anymore, that just because -- i saw the market, the futures were down five and a half at around 420. and they just kind of worked their way back up. people said maybe we're not china anymore. we're not china anymore. we're stronger than that. stop taking all your cues from china. it doesn't make sense. >> yeah. certainly claims today we'll get your attention. for whatever that's worth. >> thank you. remember our country is still really important to our country. when we come back, the biggest ipo this year, ceo of ally financial will join us in the next hour.

also, whole foods' co-ceo. microsoft's bing search director. and cubs chairman tom ricketts for all you chicago fans. don't go away. i'm beth...

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there's a look at ally financial over at post five. currently 24.70. jim's smacking the government around a little bit. >> make a little money for the people of the united states. you cost us so much. could it be that hard? priced it at 21. they can say it's okay, you do the first trade, you make it low. you can do the later part, make everybody feel good about it. sell the rest next year. people don't understand, the bankers knew where this was going to open.

everyone knows the deal. could have made a $2 pop here. just had to be a little less greedy. >> we might get the ceo's take. >> he's good and the company's good. so i don't want to -- i'm not -- i'm conflating the issue with people. there's the bankers and the syndicate desks that have really turned greedy. but it's not like they can tell the bankers "i know more than you." if you go to a doctor, you can't tell the doctor i know more than you. so don't blame carpenter. the company's a fine company. >> one other story this morning, the solution for blackberry. the company's ceo telling rioters, "if i cannot make money on hand sets, i will not be in the handset business. ." he added the timeframe for such a decision was short, adding it should be possible to make money on shipments as few as ten million a year. so more of a finish vision. although he's saying look, i had no plans to do this, i'm just willing to do it. >> there's also thousands of other people who work there. it's always good to know who's the head guy, i guess.

nokia's stock has really flourished, but blackberry itself, it's -- i've been saying at five you own it, at ten you sell it. it's just a trading vehicle. >> after the t-mobile divorce, more or less, it's a sign of where things are headed. >> by the way, i still think sprint, t-mobile does well. david cohen i thought did a good job yesterday. you could say i'm owned by david cohen. i'm actually not owned by david cohen, but i did like the way he did. >> it was an interesting hearing. the journal has a nice view of the spectrum of agreement disagreement. orrin hatch saying his contemporaries never met a merger they liked. and al franken, of course, an alum of nbc, by the way, who says that he does not like the deal, clearly. >> i know the left is going to hate this. i find franken a delight. i mean, franken -- look, he speaks his mind. i like bernie frank. i like guys who speak their mind. i like jack welch. i like sam zell. i like people who don't play for dinner.

they're not afraid to talk. they don't play for dinner. >> that was definitely the case yesterday. when we come back, we'll get stock trading with jim. but first, sarah eisen is in washington at the imf world bank spring meeting where she has two very big interviews coming up. good morning, sarah. >> good morning. missed you guys at the stock exchange. enjoying the cherry blos sosoms. the imf head christine la guard. they'll be joining us for our first interview here on cnbc when we come back. a lot of talk about lhow to get this world economy breaking out. we're growing. it's better. there are still problems. there's blame gaming. so you will not want to miss these interviews. we'll be right back on "squawk on the street. t.

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time for jim cramer. >> listen up, chevron. never been the tell for the stock. the tell is the actual numbers for the year. i think the numbers for chevron, when you get to the second half, are you going to show production growth. spending billions trying to boost production. the second half is going to show it. this stock is down. it is an opportunity. chevron, travel trust loves this stock. can't take advantage of it. i think chevron is a major buy. and then here's one -- i've got to tell you, karl, just like we focused only about china, and greece at one point. apple, deutsche bank recommends it today. says large screen -- the stock is down! remember when apple was something we cared about? >> yes. >> apple should not be down. >> do you take that deep to the suppliers? is it a qualcomm story as well? >> i think qualcomm -- we had a very good case this morning on "squawk." i liked the chip. i like the chip very much.

but i'm just stunned that an apple buy deutsche bank means nothing. where have the buyers gone? >> you wouldn't have said that a few years ago. one of my favorite headlines in "usa today" was don't miss, companies for whom earnings expegations are high. they named southwest. delta. netflix. hasbro. talk about pressure, right? >> yeah, i read that. and i think delta's numbers are going to be terrific. i think southwest is going to be very good. i think facebook's are going to be excellent. netflix doesn't trade on earnings. >> what's on "mad" tonight? >> we have the founder of the vix, going to be high frequency trading discussion. we can't lose sight of that. that's important. the hottest stock of the market is the stock called cheniere energy, with the symbol lng. we have been behind this stock from $8 on "mad money." it just hit $59.

and charif souki is a fascinating man and there's a lot of different components. it's moved a great deal. >> meanwhile, you're going to stick around for the next hour. and the things you want to know most are? >> i want to know about his shoes, whether these other drugs are coming into competition. it's a three-legged stool. >> what a ride they've had. >> they've been killing this one. >> jim, we'll see you in a few minutes. when we come right back, a big lineup including imf managing director christine lagarde, jim yong kim, and the chairman and ceo of fizer, ian reid all coming up this morning on "squawk on the street."

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♪ i wanna rock 'n' roll all night and party every day ♪ ♪ i wanna rock 'n' roll all night and party every day ♪ >> our road map starts with a huge lineup. christine lagarde will join us live shortly with her views on the state of the global economy.

>> plus, an exclusive interview with the ceo of celgene. find out what he thinks will determine the future of biomedical innovation. then the ceo of ally financial, the biggest ipo of this year will be with us live. and the big morning continues with the co-ceo of whole foods who will join us for an exclusive interview. find out his reaction to retail giant wal-mart getting into the organic food game. >> the icahn-e-bay drama is apparently over. carl icahn has dropped his proposal to split e-bay and paypal and withdrawn his nominees for the e-bay board. e-bay has added a new independent director. e-bay ceo john donahoe on cnbc earlier said this. >> we had a chance to talk more about paypal, more about e-bay, more about the opportunity of the company and i think carl now sees the potential of our company and is now becoming i think a long-term shareholder. so i think this is a real win-win for us and e-bay shareholders. >> jim, do you see it that way?

>> no. i very much favor what carl icahn was talking about. the idea that these two companies should be -- carl won me over. and then he drops it? he's won over so many people. >> i think the discussions continue is what he was saying. >> the key alignment in this press release is carl icahn says he will continue having these discussions. the mba lets him talk to the board. what if he finally wins the board over? >> i think he had to do that before, and i think that the challenge actually had a lot of supporters. the stock is signaling to you what people think. i think that stock initially went down because people felt the dump and because of the ongoing discussion and people feel that carl won't dump. but if you're now stuck with the earnings and the earnings the last two quarters weren't that good, and i do believe paypal is getting challenged by others in silicon valley who are taking great risks. >> but paypal is also challenging others, too. jamie dimon called paypal one of the shadow banks that is finding

jp morgan's pressure points and making stuff cheaper. >> i love jamie's note. it was great that he recognized that. i thought by now people who help him write that would have mentioned square. already late with paypal. although i liked it very much. >> they're investing in square. >> square is the winner. paypal's in a little bit of a jam here. >> you have a big interview, though. >> what will it take for america to continue as the world's leader in biomedical innovation. that is according to our next guest, who's got -- become the senior spokesman for this whole industry. joining us now for a cnbc exclusive interview from the pharma complex is the chairman and ceo of celgene. bob, how are you? >> great to see you, jim. >> you're a spokesman for an industry that a lot of people feel is charging too much for product. maybe because of orphan drugs or new pills that do save lives, but people can't believe the price tag. what do you say to those who

say you guys might be gouging? >> well, i think our industry has a proven track record of having such an impact on people's lives. and also a tremendous impact on the economy. you look at the past five years, 50% of the economic growth in america is due to medical innovation. and 40% of life expectancy was through improvements in innovation. 70% of life expectancy gain in the first decade of this century was due to medical innovation. these industries, these companies, these products have had such an impact on public health and such a crown jewel of the american economy, and we're committed to advocating for public policies and investment in the future that's going to continue for the next 50 years. >> all right, bob, i think that there are a lot of people who believe it, but there are other companies in your space, notably generic companies that try to make it so that when you put a lot of investment in a drug like yours, they want to challenge

that exclusivity. how are you doing in the so-called markman briefings that are going on, you versus a generic challenge for your number one franchise. >> intellectual property is the life blood of innovation, and we have to make sure as a company, as an industry we protect it. at celgene there's nothing more important than protecting intellectual property. for more than a decade, we've invested in the estate of intellectual property patents and we're confident and we will vigorously defend that intellectual property. we're very confident. we prepared for this and we'll move on and we're ready to go. >> okay, i think you've got a couple of things going and i think this -- i'm actually somewhat surprised. you're not getting a lot of credit. how big can the market be for you at peak? >> well, otesla is going to be a great drug for supervisor

yachtic arthritis and psoriasis. oral and effective therapy for those medications is a big breakthrough. we're going to deliver and it's going to be a big part of expanding the franchises of celgene. so it's a big part of the future. but we're also launching other products. so the near term prospects for celgene are very good. we're very excited about our guidance for the good, with strong revenue growth of 15%. earnings per share growth of almost 20. and the long-term investments we're making, we're so excited about the concept that's coming from partner drugs, but also our internal pipeline. so i think the future of celgene is incredibly, incredibly bright. >> aren't you surprised sometimes that the price to earnings ratio of your stock is really roughly equivalent to big pharma, even though you just put out some pretty good growth numbers? >> we're focused on building the company.

over time i think the stock market will fully recognize the results we've produced and the promise and the potential we have for the future and we're committed to turning that promise into reality. so i think over time, the stock price will take care of itself, and we've got a great future. >> bob, you've been investing in a lot of different developmental biotech companies, but you also i know are a shrewd observer of the ipo process. has the market been saturated with too many companies that i think you would describe as maybe not as up to snuff as some that you've invested in? >> you know, i do follow the markets pretty closely. i think it was a number of years, it was very, very tough markets for smaller companies, and the ipo market. so it's not surprising when the market opened you saw a lot of companies come in there. and a lot of good ones have come in there. i think i saw a report yesterday that said i think we owned 14% of the biotech ipos. we've made some good

investments. i think largely, the marketplace is a good judge of it. this is a risky business, though. so not everybody's going to be successful. but i think some of them will have meaningful impact on patients, and the market will reward them for that. >> i just want to circle back. don't you think in terms of what you've been saying about innovation, that a a pill trying to save lives is not extortion? >> i don't know all the specification of the case, but i think when you think about making such a big impact on patients, in fact, if you can cure disease and not have to treat people for a long time, the long-term costs are much lower to have an innovative therapy up front and right away. so i think drugs should have a good value proposition. the price has to reflect the value. we should talk about the value. if drugs don't have value, they shouldn't be reimbursed. but drugs that have innovative great value to patients and ultimately to the economy should be reimbursed completely.

and willingly. >> the pushback that i'm hearing from, say, congressman waxman is that this is beginning to be an outrage. but why would you ever want to invest in a drug and spend billions of dollars if you're only going to get a couple of bucks per pill? >> the costs are up to a billion two, to a billion three. ten to 12 years to develop a drug. those risks are enormous. in fact, only about two out of ten drugs that are approved every fully recoup those costs. so we've got to invest in the future because it's incredibly risky and the solutions are going to come from our industry. and we're here to talk about those issues very frankly and openly here in washington with policymakers, government officials to make sure we've got sound public policy. and jim, i want to tell you one thing that i've observed over the last day, and i think your viewers will be interested in it. and i'm an optimist, as you know. but i really feel a little bit of a change here, from both sides of the aisle, and we've

met with senators from both sides and congress people from both sides and the administration. there is a tangible feeling that people recognize they've got to work better together, and again, it's small steps, but we're seeing the recognition that public policy matters to solve health care issues and certainly important issues to the economy. and we're in the middle of both, because our research and development has a big impact on the economy and also has a big impact on public health. and i think all of the people here in washington are getting the message. they better work together, because these issues are too important. and if anything, the last day, the tone is much better. people are looking to collaborate and find common positions on important issues. so again, it's early, but i'm more optimistic than i've been in quite a while. >> i've known you for a long time. that may be the ultimate takeaway, because frankly, the partisanship has been killing us. thank you so much to bob hugin, chairman and ceo of celgene. great to talk to you, bob. >> thanks for having me on, jim.

>> absolutely. >> great interview, jim. you guys covered a lot of kbround theground there. >> i was on jury duty with bob's wife recently. i coach his kids. i've known bob for a long time from the neighborhood. >> you travel in good circles even during jury duty. coming up, the president of the world bank joins us with his take. plus, a very important interview with christine lagarde, the managing director of the imf. and later, ally financial going public today at the nyse. the stock was down in early trading. what has worsened since then, it's down about 1.5%. first on cnbc. that's all next on "squawk on the street." the street."

welcome back. the company's experimental hepatitis c drug produced clinical trial results, positioned it as a strong contender to the potential blockbuster drug. but wells fargo says the drug may be over hyped. as for gilliad, it's trading by 2.8%. in a programming note, fizer chairman and ceo ian reid will

be on live in the next half-hour. you won't want to miss it. kayla, over to you. we want the talk a little bit more about bed, bath & beyond. that stock still, as we said last hour, taking a bath. down about 6% on a weak fourth quarter earnings report. you have a lot of moving parties with that company. are the retail space in general, we should also note that costco seeing a bit of a bounce from its march same store sales, which also came out this morning. so a lot to watch in the retail space and we will get more from you on that throughout the hour. simon? >> in the meantime, the big one today, ally financial day bug on t -- debuting on the big board this morning.ebuting on -- debuting on the big board this morning. you just saw where the shares are trading. let's bring in ally financial ceo michael carpenter. good morning. >> good morning, simon. >> we've been waiting for you for a long time. >> we've been waiting for a long time. >> filed three years ago for an

ipo? >> yes, we did. >> why did you go for it now? >> well, the main thing is during the course of last year, we put behind us a series of major issues. in particular, the whole issue of mortgage contingency risk hung over us. put an end to that in '13. we were able to pass the stress test last year. we got to be a financial holding company in the fourth quarter. you add all these this evenings together and we were ready to go. this is a great day for the american taxpayer because in the last six months, on a fully diluted basis, they would have owned 91% of the company. down to 17% as of right now. >> which they'll quit by the end of the year. >> i think so, but that's their decision. so they've gone 17.7 billion back on their 17.2 investment.

they still own $2 billion of stock. >> does that partly explain the pricing in the open? the range we thought you would price at is 25 to 28. you went to the bottom of that. is it a different process if you have the treasury standing behind you saying maybe their priorities are slightly different from a normal seller? certainly maximizing their return. >> i think treasury is an organization that wants to maximize its return on a timeframe. and so they're definitely not long-term investments. if you look at what's happened, we got them out $6 billion last november. we were upgraded to financial holding company. we immediately did a private for 3 billion. we were on the road with ipo. >> you sold off a lot of part of the businesses to pay back treasury, most notably the international businesses. >> correct. >> you raised a lot of money doing that. >> correct. >> you put rezcap into bankruptcy. a lot of people said why not just sell off the whole company?

why did you feel that going public was what you needed to do? >> first of all, the idea of selling a bank of any size in this regulatory government is just not achievable. the regulators do not want big banks getting bigger. and so, you know, the option of selling the company was certainly not in the cards. >> what happens now? the limits on executive pay will go. >> no, they won't. >> when they're out presumably, will it not? >> when they're out completely. >> by the end of the year. >> which will be my plan. >> okay. >> i have no inside information. >> what do you do? there is a feeling, and the bulk of what you do is automotive financing. that you're going to have to go more subprime. you're going to have to go riskier. you can go riskier. >> no. >> is that how you grow the business? >> no. we're already 10% subprime.

10% is plenty. what we're telling investors and what we tell investors on the road show is our returnable equity is simply unacceptable. we have these two fantastic franchises. we have premier auto franchise, premier direct banking franchise. the roe just doesn't match up. we have a plan that will take the roe into double digit range and will do it three ways. one is we have a lot of high cost because of the financial crisis that we're going to -- we're in the process of repurchasing. we've got a much simpler company today, so we have an opportunity to take out a lot of operating costs. and then thirdly, believe it or not, as a government owned company, the regulators put on us additional constraints over other banks. so we're going to get regulatory normalization. >> is it implicit in what you say that things will get a lot better over time, that these other two shareholders will stay

with you? because obviously that's an overhang for the market. guys that have been in it probably longer than they wanted to be. >> treasury will still own 17%. a lot of the retail investors said i don't know if i want to buy this when there's going to be so much selling pressure over the next year. >> first of all, a new investor. serberus has been there for eight years. when we did the billion free private in the fall, they increased their ownership. and third point has become a large shareholder. you know, basically since the third quarter of last year. >> but they're not selling anything in the ipo. do you talk to dan lobe? >> from time to time. >> you're being diplomatic. >> i like smart investors. >> i think you'll probably talk to him after this. thank you for coming, sir. michael carpenter, the biggest ipo so far this year. >> thank you for your time. investors around the world are closely watching the success of greece's first bond sale in

four years for signs of overall confidence in market. our very own sarah eisen is live in d.c. ahead of the imf's spring meeting this weekend with the imf's managing director christine lagarde. sarah, good morning. take it away. >> good morning. thank you very much, simon. and it's great to have you here, madame lagarde. great to see you again. >> lovely to be with you. >> i have to say, there is a more optimistic tone. we were talking about how last time we spoke here, it was in the middle of the u.s. government shutdown, on the brink of a possible default. 3.6 global growth. is this the most optimistic you've been since the financial crisis? >> there is quite a positive mood around, and it's true that the global economy is turning the corner of the great recession. but it's not yet all rosy, and it's still too slow, too weak, and still a bit uneven. i'm glad to say that the united states is doing a lot better.

our forecast is 2.8% growth. and a bit more next year. >> but we're not in the 3% drop. not in this breakout growth rate in this country. why not? >> i think there is -- first of all, there has to be a normalization in many respects. normalization of the monetary process. good communication. this is happening as well. predictability in terms of financial regulations. the job is not yet completed. there's an element of trust that needs to be rebuilt. trust can be damaged in next to no time. it rebuilds gradually over timele and we hope to see it happening. >> it's good to hear that the u.s. is in the driver's seat when it comes to global growth. but does that give the u.s. a right, for instance, to criticize other governments and other economic policies?

secretary lew was on our air talking about how surplus countries in europe like germany need to invest more and stimulate with infrastructure. that the chinese need to be more transparent and allow their exchange rate to flow more freely. is that appropriate for the u.s. to be giving that kind of advice? >> i hope they will do that about each other in a way. but then we move all collectively to the next step, which is cooperation. because some of his points absolutely legitimate. but equally, the united states has to really address its issue of the fiscal path in the medium term, because it is going to face significant headwind in the coming years. >> in other words, it has its own problems to deal with. >> absolutely. each and every economy has its own problems. each and every economy can participate in improving growth. that's exactly the objective

that the australian presidency has set for the world. plus 2% over the next five years. but this will only happen if they only look at each other, they can eventually, you know, suggest modifications and improvement. but they have to look at their own, you know, backyard and see what needs to be done at home. what we are seeing is unbelievable spillovers amongst countries. so whatever happens in germany, in china is going to have an impact on what happens in the united states. whatever happens in the united states is going to have an impact on the rest of the world. which is why this forum, when they all come together, not just to talk to you, which is great, but to talk to each other, is very, very important. >> what's the level of cooperation at this point? because it does seem like there is a lot of finger pointing and blame gaming about who is holding back the world economy right now. >> as i said, my hope is that the imf can play a role in

taking them one step further. pointing fingers only takes you so far. identifying how one can help each other while at the same time helping its own economy, that's what matters. and that's the 2% journey that the australians have identified. we're helping in that regard. we have assessed what measures they want. they each want to take in the g20. and we are scoring that together with other international institutions. they still have a way to go. i can assure you. >> speaking of identifying problems, the imf has been very vocal. you yourself have been very vocal about concerns of low inflation in europe. deflation, is that a real possibility for the eurozone? >> you know, i prefer to talk about durable, very low inflation. and that's a risk. it's a risk because it's a threat against growth. it's a threat against jobs. and it makes the servicing of debt quite heavy. we are very encouraged to see

that the ecb has taken that risk and is prepared to take every appropriate measure to fight against it. >> i just have to ask you about the press conference from mario draghi last week in which he addressed your advice. he said the imf has been extremely generous in its suggestion on what we should or should not do. we, in essence, feel a little differently. it's almost sarcastic, sort of unusual for mario draghi. >> that's the italian sense of humor. it's beautiful. >> you weren't offended? >> i have a very thick skin. and more focused on his positive comments about what he will do, what the ecb will do in due course. i have full confidence in their good judgment, that they will do what is right. >> in terms of the imf's suggestion, are you talking about a fed style qe? >> they will have to design what is most appropriate. but there is clearly an issue of not only design, not only the appropriate calibration, but implementation. and i know they will focus on

that. >> speaking of the positive tone in europe, the great bond sale. that has to be a humongous milestone. greece comes back to the bond market, first time since 2010. five-year bond below 5% yield, what does that signal? >> and it's largely oversubscribed as well. so there's a great appetite. which i would take as a sign of trust and confidence in the recovery of that economy. i think it's an encouragement for the greek people who have put up with a lot of hardship. and for the greek authorities who have driven that laboriously, but driven the effort. it's a clear indication that the direction is good. >> it also speaks to the fact that global financial markets have been very calm. near record highs. the ftse has been rallying. are markets underpricing? underestimating some of the risks that you're pointing out? >> i wouldn't think that they're underestimating. no. >> you think that that optimism is justified in the world

markets? >> i hope it is sensible and in line with the evolution and the fundamentals. >> and we have 30 seconds left. i just have to ask you. because it has entered into some of the conversations here. do you think there's a role for bitcoin in the financial systems future? >> not as is. it's too big an avenue for money laundering and other funny activities. >> but not ruling it out in the future? >> i reserve judgment. >> okay. an open mind. it's always good to see you. thanks for the trip around the world with us. the host of the spring meetings, the world bank and imf meeting, christine lagarde, managing director of the imf. we'll send it back to you guys. >> thank you so much, sarah. fantastic interview. meanwhile, straight ahead, an exclusive interview with the co-ceo of whole foods. what does he think of wal-mart getting into the organic food business? find out right after the short break. alright.

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." i'm reporting from the nymex. the department of energy out with its nat gas storage report. we were expecting an injection of about 13 billion cubic feet. the injection came in at about four billion cubic feet. a little bit less than expected.

trading lower ahead of this report. but here are the main takeaways that you have to consider. we got an injection for the first time in many weeks here. that is because the weather has warmed a little. traders are still concerned that so much damage was done this winter to supply that it will take some time to be able to catch up. the experts are also saying you have to look at this number, take it with a little bit of a grain of salt because the facilities were switching from the process of flipping from draws to injects and that could make this number a little bit ambiguous. but again, at this point, we are seeing the prices trade higher, guys. back over to you. >> thank you so much, jackie. a price increase is evident there after that report. meanwhile, wal-mart making news today and it's buying wild oats, a company that was previously bought by whole foods until regulators shut that deal down. the news is that wal-mart and wild oats will be launching a new line of organic food. the co-ceo of whole foods is at the annual two-day retail conference in tucson this morning. our courtney reagan is in attendance as well.

good morning, court. >> good morning to you. it's nice to see you this morning. i am here with walter robb, the co-ceo of whole foods. what a day for you to be joining us. >> good morning. >> we got some big news in grocery, but particularly in organics. with that wal-mart announcement, they're teaming up with wild oats, a company you're very familiar with from your past dealings with them. what do you think the impact will be in your space? >> well, i think the brand has been out of the marketplace for a while. and also remember, it's only a packaged goods product. so it doesn't cover the whole fresh food perimeter. and wal-mart has been in the organic space for some time. so that being said, they're an excellent competitor. i will say historically, of all the competitors on the market, their customers overlapped the least with ours. but in the end, i think it's an affirmation that this organic food marketplace continues to grow. i think it's a 225 billion market by 2018. we're the leaders in that space and i think we'll continue to be. >> 90% of wal-mart's customers say they'd love to buy organic

if they could afford it. whole foods, certainly prices are higher than many others. but you're making price investments. are you gaining a new customer, someone that previously couldn't get into the organic food space but now can? >> i think our 365 organic, if you look at the price, it's very competitive with any retailer out there right now. i think the last number of years, making organic choices affordable and available to customers, and the growth of that line suggests that we're doing it fairly successfully. i think, again, this idea that the marketplace is growing overall, if you look at the supermarket industry, $750 billion in this country. and this market is going to grow to 225 billion. tremendous growth. tremendous growth. tremendous opportunity. so there's going to be more players. we've seen that happen. i think we're going to continue with unparalleled quality standards and transparency along with a great customer experience that our team members provide. i think that gives us a good leg up in the market going forward. >> speaking of growth, you've made some acquisitions recently. four stores in california and

arizona. seven in the chicago area. is the expansion plan going to take the form of that going forward. buying previously existing places, potentially with a lower size footprint than what whole foods typically goes after. >> there were 380 stores. just opened our newest store in london yesterday. we announced on facebook, which was kind of cool. we have a very clear road map to where those stores can be. i do think most of the growth is going to be organic. that being said, we have a short list of potential companies we'd like to join, and this was one that you mentioned, the new frontiers that we acquired last week. four stores, three in arizona, one in california. so we're optimistic. we have a good clean balance sheet. we have plenty of cash. we have no debt. we have all the ability to fund the cash flow. so we're looking aggressively to see what else might be out there to go along with the growth that we have in store. >> i believe kayla has a question. so we'll shoot it back over to

her. kayla? >> thanks so much. walter, i just have a question about your expansion. because there's an interesting read about unsinkable locations. detroit, boise. i'm wondering how you justify that to shareholders when your expansion has got your same store sales forecast down. >> well, putting that in perspective, the stores reference there had are a very small part of our overall growth. three or four stores you mentioned there out of total growth -- we'll do 40 or 45 stores this year. that's fairly small percentage. that being said, every single store we do is a responsible investment. we're not a charity. every single store we're opening is to be profitable. in fact, detroit is profitable. and so there's no need to justify it. it's been a very successful store so far. >> can i ask you about the pricing, just to come back to what wal-mart is saying, that it can offer a packaged organic food at a 25% discount.

what happens to the industry overall and pricing within the industry overall, can wal-mart drive that down and drive margin out of the business, or do you think you'll always be able to price at different points in different parts of the country? in other words, is it not one market? >> well again, according to -- wal-mart's been in the organic marketplace for some time. and this product line only references part of the organic offerings. but i do think you take them seriously and you say all right, watch it evolve and see what you have to do competitively to respond. but our 365 organic line right now, which is over a thousand skus, is very competitively priced for customers right now today. they can go to the store and get that product. and also, historically, i haven't noticed that their customers are overlapping with ours. that being said, if the market continues to broaden, that's a good thing. that means more organic food is going to be grown and the overall market is going to

continue to grow. i think we're going to continue to bring the transparency, the quality standards, the highest in the supermarket industry, represent a clear choice for people who want natural and organic foods. >> we can talk a little bit about food delivery. a lot are experienced with delivering it to customers. where is whole foods standing in that? >> we're a little behind in that. but we're experimenting with click and collect, so you can order at home and pick it up at the store. we have some partnerships with square order ahead, pick up at the store. we have some experience with home delivery in the bay area. we're looking around in the e-commerce space. looking at different ways to provide an experience for our customers outside the four walls of the store. >> so you're not edomitting it. >> i think it's clear the customer is saying today that they would like to be able to enjoy your store, enjoy your brand outside of the store.

i think so we have to be able to develop customers for choices to do just that. >> there's been a lot of talk about the drought in california in certain areas where you're sourcing your product. how is that impacting your prices? >> you wouldn't know it from right here. there's still some rain falling in california. i think there's going to be some effect on produce and some of the commodity products as a result of the production. generally, overall, food inflation is fairly moderate this year. so it's going to be select. pork maybe in the beef area. some of the grains area. but i think it's manageable. >> thank you so much for joining us. walter robb, co-ceo of whole foods. we're live at the global retailing conference in arizona all day long. back to you. >> what a great place to be, by the looks of it. courtney reagan there with that exclusive interview. still ahead on the show, a rare interview with pfizer ceo

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." check out shares of rite aid, the stock soaring after forecasting 2015 earnings above street snaestimates. this after reporting a better than expected quarterly profit due to strong pharmacy sales. the stock currently trading higher, up better than 12%. kayla, over to you. >> thanks for that. baseball season is in full swing. the chicago cubs beat the pirates last night in a 7-5 win. right now they rank fourth in the national league central division. rick has special gesuest. rick, over to you. >> before i get to my special guest, happy birthday, wrigley

field! 100 years old, and it is one of the greatest ballparks i've ever been to. fenway is pretty nice, too. i'd like to welcome the chairman of the chicago cubs, he's a dual title guy. i'd like to welcome tom ricketts. >> good morning, rick. >> when i think of chicago cubs, it's hard to separate the cubs from wrigley field. celebrating 100 years. tell us about what you and the family after purchasing the cubs in 2009, you have an infinity for all of wrigley field? >> absolutely. wrigley is an iconic, beautiful cathedral of baseball. i met my wife there. we've been going there for years. it means a lot to our family. the 100th anniversary, so we have a lot of great things planned for everyone coming to the park. it's going to be a fun birthday celebration all yearlong. hopefully we'll get the

renovations started as well. >> in '09, your family paid about $850 million roughly for the cubs. forbes magazine valued roughly at 2.1 billion. that's a 50% return in four and a half years. i would think with the brain power you have in business and your dad at ameritrade, why can't we bring a winning team on the field? >> we're doing it, we're doing it. the fact is that we have to do it the right way. i mean, the way you're going to win the world series is by being consistent. it's by building a foundation of a baseball oh, that's going to provide players for you on a regular basis. and we're doing it. we brought our system a long way in the last couple years. we're now ranked second by a lot of the major baseball magazines and other periodicals. we're getting there. we have a great team on the field this year. we're younger, we're more exciting. it's getting there. >> in terms of payroll, wasn't that many years ago that you

were closer to the top of the list in term of payroll. now i think it's third lowest in the league. >> not third lowest, but payroll has definitely come down. part of that is a lot of those contracts we had a few years ago rolled off. and part of it now is that we have a lot of -- we've assigned a lot of dollars for the major league baseball payroll, and this year we couldn't find a lot of great places to put them. so the payroll is where it should be for where we are. it will grow over time. and, you know, we're excited about our future. >> we want to renovate wrigley field. i personally kind of like wrigley field. i'm an old car collector. i like keeping old cars original. i don't want to buy a beautiful '57 chevy and put a boom box in the trunk and put the fancy wheels on it. why do we need all these fancy screens at wrigley field? aren't the fans coming? hasn't attendance been terrific over the years? >> attendance is fine. there's not an issue there. but there's a couple things. i mean, one is the amenities at wrigley field need to be

upgraded. everyone knows that when they're in the field and they're watching the game -- >> yeah, but you have the coolest scoreboard in the history of leagues. but why the big jumbotrons? it seems as though there's an issue with the neighborhood. just fill us in what you're looking to renovate, how much it costs and where maybe you might get the financing. >> right, okay, well it's well over $300 million to fix wrigley and save it for the next generation. most of that is steel, concrete, electrical, and plumbing. that's what the ballpark needs the most. with respect to the financing, we're going to look at all the options on the table. and see what makes the most sense. >> why don't you want to do it in-house, so to speak? pretty much your family controls 90 something percent of the chicago cub organization. why go to outside financing? what's the benefits there? >> it's just an alternative. i think you can find -- that's the way most baseball teams have done it. most baseball teams have several dozen limited donors. i think if we can find a handful

of guys that are great partners, value added people in the organization, that would be the best answer for us. but it's really early. we don't know exactly how it's all going to go down or what the plan is. but we do know we've got to start planning for it. >> now, you're in the business. in terms of these securities, you see what's going on in the markets. greece could throw paper out there and they're fighting and clawing at each other to get. i countries and territories that are going bankrupt. you should have no trouble selling these securities. >> i don't think they'll be any trouble. i think for us, it's a matter of finding the right partners. >> when you see interest rates where they're at, what pops into your head with regard to the u.s. economy? >> well, it just seems like we don't have that catalyst to really get us going again. we're just kind of bumping along. we've been going sideways for a long time. >> let's stop right there, because you describe the u.s. economy and how i feel about the cubs output the last couple of years. but tom, i know you're going to do something to change that. there's nothing this city would celebrate in a bigger way than an actual world series coming to

the north side of chicago. >> we're on it. >> thanks for taking the time today, tom. >> thanks, rick. >> back to you. >> rick, the only person who could put a greek bond and chicago cubs financing in the same conversation. up next, the world bank president joins us live. more on the global economy when we come right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] help brazil reduce its overall reliance on foreign imports with the launch of the country's largest petrochemical operation. ♪ when emerson takes up the challenge, "it's never been done before" simply becomes consider it solved. emerson. ♪ emerson. anbe a name and not a number?tor scottrade. ron: i'm never alone with scottrade. i can always call or stop by my local office.

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welcome back. we want to issue a slight correction in the introduction to whole foods co-ceo walter robb. i said walmart was buying wild oats. it was whole foods that attempted to buy it, in a deal regulators blocked, and they're introducing a newer price line for organic foods. we want to get a check of markets, because the s&p and the nasdaq have been negative all session. but the dow has actually crossed the flat line six separate times in just the first hour of trading. of course, there's a lot of volatility, simon, as some of the momentum names across the board are starting to fall off again. >> yes, alexian, bioagain, and salesforce also in negative territory. >> all right. we get more on the global economy, as there are jitters in

the market following yesterday's fed minutes. sarah eisen is in d.c. as the world bank fed meeting. you have yet another special guest, so we'll let you take it away. >> yeah, i've got the world bank president here, dr. jim yong kim. great to see you again. >> great to see you. >> you have a great handle on the emerging markets with your mission on poverty at the world bank. i want to ask you about china. overnight, disappointing data on exports, on imports. are you concerned about that slowdown not being manageable? >> you know, if you listen to what premier chong said, he said on the one hand, they'll implement policies that will try to purr growth. but they won't go back to stimulus measures, which is really important. what the chinese have said in terms of reform is they'll move away a focus on investment and imports and more toward consumption -- >> so you're expecting the slowdown along with the rebalancing, but the import slide was unexpected. >> it was. what we're now watching for -- because, you know, china is

going through reform. there will be the ups and downs. the question is what is their resolve in continuing with the reforms? everything i see suggests to me from the highest level that they're going to continue with the reforms, which is what they should do. >> but they're not when it comes to the currency, because they're actually weakening the currency, something the united states has been increasingly complaining about. that was supposed to be the reform, letting it float more freely and letting it appreciate. it's going the other way. >> they are moving in that direction. you're seeing that, for example, in the shanghai free trade zone, in little experiments, they're doing that. my own sense is they're going to be moving more this that direction. but the process of reform is difficult. the then is, in previous years, what you might have seen is already the chinese would start, you know, stimulus measures, and the fact that they're not doing that, and they made it clear they won't do that, you know, it should be an indication for everyone that this is a very different government. >> things have calmed down since the federal reserve began the taper. still, emerging markets are vulnerable. >> yeah. >> to the fed decreasing the

liquidity it's put out there. how worried with you about that process? >> well, if you look at yields, yields did go up, right in may. but those yields have held steady. now -- through now. and if you look at the yield today, it's still about 50 basis points lower than it was before the announcement -- the crisis overall. and so, while there is some concern, lots of things are balancing out. for example, at the end of january, did you see some capital outflow from the emerging markets, but that recovered in march. >> are you saying the worst is over? >> well, you know, these days, we all know, you can never say the worst is over, because you never know what will happen next. but, for example, in indonesia, they intervened and made good policy moves, and the deficit counts have gone down quite a bit. so there's a lot of skill. a lot of wisdom in these emerging markets. they're very sophisticated now. and we see that despite the ups

and downs from the announcement of tapering, as long as the tapering is smooth, which we hope it will be, we think the emerging market economies will be in good shape. >> i do want to ask you about ukraine. you've been involved. i know you've met with the new government, they're taking the reforms, increased the amount of aid you're giving. do you have a progress report on how that's going and how the economy is faring? >> we're worried about their economy. we think, of course, growth is going to be negative. and so, what we need to do right now is a couple of things. first, financial stabilization. we're working very closely with the imf. imf has announced they'll do $14 billion to $18 billion, and part of that will be immediate sort of into their budget. we will go with them -- we have $1.5 billion we can put into budget support for the ukrainians. some part of the support will be immediate for financial stabilization, and another part will come over the course of the year where we're going to help them in terms of providing basic services to the poorest. they're going to try to remove fuel subsidies, which is great. but it will be tough. we need to put in measures to

protect the poorest while they're doing that. we're impressed with the seriousness around the reform agenda that the prime minister and his government has shown. >> an update on ukraine, and i know you have increased the lending capacity at the world bank, good news. >> well, you know, one of the things -- we've had a lot of demand. china, india, brazil, indonesia have wanted to borrow more from us. and so we've instituted a series of flexibilities so that we're going to increase our overall lending package from 45 or so to 70 over the next few years, which is the largest increase that the bank has seen for a very long time. and this is without a capital increase. >> right. >> the demand for our services is strong. >> all right. we're going to leave it there. good to see you, as always, at the spring meeting. dr. kim yong jim, the president of the world bank. back to you, simon. >> thank you very much, sarah. boy, do we have a busy program ahead. still ahead, microsoft's answer to bing, one of the many things

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>> announcer: welcome to "squawk on the street." here's what's happened so far. >> one of the things i think people are distinguishing, carl, is the earnings. the ones with earnings started going up very, very hard. the ones without earnings drifting up. [ bell sounds ] >> there's the bell. >> this industry, these companies, these products have had such an impact on public health and such a crown jewel of the american economy. and we're committed to advocating for public policies and investment in the future that will continue for the next 50 years. >> there is quite a positive mood around, and it's true that the global economy is turning the corner for great action, but it's not yet all rosy, and it's still too slow, too weak, and still a bit uneven. >> in the end, i think it's an affirmation that this organic food marketplace continues to grow. i think it's a $225 billion market by 2018. we're the leaders in that space, and i think we'll continue to be.

good morning. it's 11:00 a.m. on the east coast, 8:00 a.m. out west. we've got a great lineup for you. keep your eye on the momentum stocks making another move to the onside this morning. we'll tell you what to watch for in just a moment. there is a truce in the biggest hedge fund fight of the year as carl icahn withdraws his bid for seats on the board of ebay. is the battle completely over? what is microsoft's plan for bing? it started out as an search engine, but now it powers the answer to siri. and also, he rarely does interviews, but today he is talking to cnbc. pfizer ceo ian read will be here later this hour. but we start with ebay. it started with a bang and ended with, well, a settlement. the biggest activist fight of the year is over after ebay

announced it settled with activist investor carl icahn. under the terms of the deal, icahn will drop his bid for two seats on ebay's board, and in return, ebay will add a new director that both have agreed upon. we want to bring in scott wapner who will be speaking live with carl icahn in the next hour of cnbc's output. scottie, what's your take here? >> i guess, simon, you could call this the truth -- the truce heard 'round wall street today. it's an interesting development. it's my understanding that carl and john donohoe, the ceo of ebay, spent many, many hours on the phone over the past several days sort of talking about this. and perhaps what's most ironic here is it's also my understanding that jimmy lee, the famed banker from jpmorgan, is the one that actually made this all happen. not goldman sachs, which was the advisor here. so it's just interesting how the personalities of all of this thing really brought these two parties together after what had been a really contentious fight. you know, insults from each

side. john donohoe was on "squawk box" this morning, of course, the ceo. here's what he had to say about what exactly changed. >> what really has changed here is our conversation got to the fundamentals of the business. and the fundamentals of the opportunity in front of us, both for ebay and paypal, and that's what we're aligned on, where we found common ground. that's what my focus and our focus will be going forward. >> so at the end of the day, carl gets a seat on the board, and he does make it clear, guys, that he will continue to press his case as to why ebay and paypal should be separated. i think that's the most interesting part, as you sort of figure what's going to happen now that they have a confidentiality agreement in place so that carl can have conversations with management, sort of more freely now. he's had similar things in the past, and a number of companies whose stocks, by the way, since those things were put into place have done awfully well. so that's going to be the most interesting part as to the

future of ebay and paypalace a business held together, now that carl has a voice on the board. simon? >> and i would say -- and i would say within that, what will be interesting in the interview is the nuance. when he says, look, he's going to meet donohoe every time he's in town in new york, what does icahn expect from that? it's very open-ended, isn't it? the language he uses in that interview, i think, will be vital, scott. >> i think he will continue to press the case. >> well, for sure. >> it's important to note, as well, you know, again, it's my understanding from sort of those in the know and the sources that i've talked to in terms of carl's position in the stock, remember, no 13d released in this whole thing. so we never really knew exactly maybe around what price carl got into the stock. we know he has about 2%. it was ebay, i believe, that revealed the stake by carl icahn in the beginning when they announced earnings and then revealed that carl had taken this position.

so he's probably made about 70 to 80 or 90 million dollars from what i can tell in this position, so far. people for the rest of this day and the weeks ahead will try to decide, well, who won, who lost? carl did not get the split he wanted at least to this point, but it will be a hard case to make that he lost considering he did get a guy on the board, he's up 70 to 80 million dollars, as well, and now he'll continue to make his case as to why these businesses should be separated. the real interesting dynamic is how is this going to play out with mark andreesen and scott cook and guys on the board that carl really went after. >> no doubt, that's going to be an important role for some of the relationship brokers who have helped these companies reach what they're calling common ground, but, scott, it doesn't really seem like there is much common ground besides the appointment of david dorman to the board. >> donohoe alluded to that with andrew this morning, but in their statement that they have

been able to sort of bridge the gap and find some kind of common ground, at least enough that ebay was willing to put carl's guy on the board and they'll continue to have these conversations by virtue of the confidentiality agreement that's now in place. so that he couldn't -- there won't be letters flying back and forth and the substance of their conversations wihich will probably get deeper are not revealed in piecemeal. >> the interview, scott, 12:30? >> yeah, on "the half." >> all right. thank you so much. now, time for the "squawk feed." joining us is john steinberg along with our own jon fortt. ebay is down about 2% even though this agreement has been reached. but it's in sympathy with a lot of the tech names falling off. you have facebook, netflix, tesla. jon? >> yeah, take a look at who's down. amazon around 3%. workday, pandora, cheg, zynga,

linkedin, down more than that. this is what we've been talking about. i really think we'll look to earnings, particularly next week they kick off, to see what the fundamentals of these businesses are, particularly some of the fundamental tech names where some of the money's been going, and we'll kind of get a sense at the end of april where this will go. >> also, these are stocks that have all, in many cases, doubled or tripled over the past year. they're moving up 4%, 5% in a day, down 4%, 5% in a day. they're tremendously volatile. facebook had the sheryl sandberg commitment run, holding onto some of those gains. it's sort of all over the map. >> it's quite difficult for them to get leverage, if they are -- and i assume they are -- those that have been bought on borrowed money. this very heavy level of leverage at the new york stock exchange and elsewhere, if they're full sellers, if they had their own dynamic, irrespective of where we are on earnings. >> and the ipo point, too.

more of the ipos flood the market, and you have to sell some of these stocks. if you're off 100%, you'll sell off. >> what we're looking for is the overall narrative for tech. what is it? is it just kind of general global growth? is it that these companies we're looking to in mobile and cloud really do have sustained growth despite what's going on in a macro environment -- >> just let me point out what we're seeing on the screen, which is a nasdaq that continues to fall and now down 1.5. >> and it shows, simon, how much psychology plays into this market, regardless of fund flows, yes, selling some facebook to buy grubhub, and that's happening to a portion, but it shows the psychology on a given day -- >> i think people feel the sector is expensive. it's not like in '99 where we'll see the thing collapse. the question is, how much does it go down? is the right level 10% down? is the right level 8% down? is the -- >> let's point out the magnitude

of the move, though. a netflix or facebook is a huge market cap. when you see the move by 3%, 4%, 5%, compared to grubhub, which ally was the largest ipo we had, and they raised $2.5 billion. so different orders of magnitude. >> and -- and that they're doing the moves on a day-to-day basis, which is more staggering. >> also, some of the positive moves on the positive side. cantor upgrading twitter. but some of the reports are falling on deaf ears. they don't even matter in a market like this. >> who's up today? on my list of tech stocks, i see hp up almost 2%. sprint, ibm, tmobile -- sorry, at&t. verizon. >> old tech. >> yeah. the boring dividend tech is up. there seems to be this back-and-forth, the seesaw we're seeing one day, the next day -- >> and what we have here, too, an old-line guy -- i don't mean you're old -- but you've been in silicon valley for so long

covering the tech stalwarts. i feel like i'm moderating a debate here. >> we talk a lot -- >> i wouldn't take that personally. >> -- how moded or not moded netflix is. the part is it's going after the traditional businesses. part of the problem, anybody can go into that, as well. that's a big dynamic in netflix, as we see every day sony, yahoo! all of the people announcing they'll do more over-the-top stuff. >> it's interesting. we're watching the nasdaq fall further, down 65 points at this point. the dow is falling, down 69 points here at 11:10 on the east coast. we want to keep going on momentum stocks. we want to send it over to seema. >> kayla, check out the etfs that have exposure to the momentum stocks. all losing ground, and we begin with the first trust, dow jones internet etf, currently trading down, better than 2.5%. and then, there's the ishares trading down, moving below its

50 and 100-day moving averages, and the global x media etf also lower by around 1.7%. it seems like the rally in the momentum stocks we saw yester y yesterday, that seems to be losing steam here. simon? >> mm, i guess the question is -- thank you, seema -- at what point do you move in to pick them up? >> from where i sit, people talk about the fundamental things the businesses are doing. there's a lot of excitement around the new cloud-based software and applications. a lot of excitement for people in media, they're no longer captive to a cable provider. you don't see as much of a discussion of the market with my fellow entrepreneurs. >> one of the questions, of course, in your line of business, what will this do to the pipeline of global ipos? we've talked about companies like dropbox going public, or spotify in the next couple of quartering. >> oral a or alley bab ba. >> it's hard for those without sustainability.

ali baba, i don't think it affects it. maybe the multiple a little bit. we will not see a lot of nonprofitable companies. >> we just showed you a chart of the vix. it's up 6%. it's important to note the vix is hovering around 15. by historical standards, that is not very high. that is not super volatile. and underwriters who are watching ipos, the vix is the number-one indicator they look at. if it goes above 20, you're not getting close to the public markets. so i think that if we're talking about ipos, that's the only chart we need to look at, because that is the one on every single banker -- >> it's a concentrated area, too. talking about the tech, within tech right now, there's a real problem going on. >> i think there's a bigger question. your question surely is, is t s this -- did you see a one-off bubble like we had with dot-com that's gone up and come down? or is this just kind of a velocity that will come back again? in other words, will pick up a move higher moving on, or is this a one-time change? how do you value the stocks? >> there are a number of challenges we'll get to talk about in earnings season.

we've seen emerging markets slow down. we've seen a number of big techs have trouble in china. how is that continuing? at the same time, we have numbers from gartner showing that pcs aren't falling off quick as quickly as expected. what's the impact on intel's results and on their outlook? >> some will say that's because of windows xp. more people were buying new computers in the first quarter. >> absolutely. >> all right. >> yeah. >> -- still grow. more on that on monday. up next on the program, microsoft's bing is not just a search engine. the new digital assistant like siri, is largely powered by bing software. and that's not all. bing features are put to use on everything from maps to windows search tools. so what's microsoft's master plan for the bing service? we'll talk to the man who runs it in a moment. plus, make sure you stay tuned for our rare exclusive interview -- yes, rare and exclusive interview -- with ian read, the ceo of pfizer and

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answers as she grows, more familiar with the user. we want to bring back jon fortt, the brains behind cortana, stefan weitz. >> let's jump into it. let's talk about bing. nice momentum. a high in u.s. market share. how do you expect it to affect the numbers going forward? >> it's interesting. cortana is a different search experience. looking at what it can do, but more importantly helping people understand what search can do, we think, will, of course, continue to give positive momentum for us. >> looking at amazon -- amazon uses a number of microsoft services in the kindle, but they've also worked on their own voice-search technology. how will you work with them on mobile with bing going forward, and perhaps cortana, too? >> i think you're seeing what bing is good at, which is looking at the pieces to power

search. all of the different things, putting them where they actually belong. so in many cases, we power web search on siri, all of yahoo! web search, the kindle fire. it's not about having to adopt the entire stack or platform of bing. we understand that in this modern world and this modern web, having all of the pieces that can be deployed at the right place for the right experience makes the most extense. >> what about fire tv? what role do you play there? >> they've done an interesting job and good job on the voice recognition on fire tv, but nothing beyond that to say. >> so what about the wearable space, also? i mean, we're starting to see some of this come out, google put out android wear, microsoft has had interest in this area in the past. what kind of work are you doing there? and how do you expect that to be different from what we've seen on desktop and mobile so far? >> well, i think you're hitting an interesting point, which is the search that we all have come to expect and use, which is a keyword-based search to a bunch

of links on a web page doesn't make any sense in the wearable space, when you have two lines of text on a bracelet or text in your eyes, you have to fundamentally rethink what search can actually do. we, of course, now have an entire device in studio, putting out products like surface and now with the nokia acquisition coming through, we expect to have a number of great devices that are coming out. but more importantly, we really want to be able to power any device out there using the technology we're building to actually make search a lot better. >> well, using that technology, stefan, it's clear you are integrating that technology with several products that microsoflt is running. cortana the latest of those, but a year ago, investors were saying we want to split up microsoft, spin off bing, maybe the games unit. i'm wondering when you have conversations with nadella, what commitment does he make to this integration? >> if you look at what we're doing, we power xbox one, and

powering parts of microsoft, and even windows phone, and even parts of windows. it really isn't a question around do you take bing and spin it off or not. bing is now woven into the fabric of the company. and because it is probably the most scalable cloud service that we have out there, consumer-based cloud service we have out there, it makes sense for us to continue to invest in the capabilities of search given the new reality of the web and put those experiences where they belong, all across our products and partners' products. >> stefan, you must secretly wish -- you said earlier on you'd like to power any device. you must secretly wish he had said, okay, we'll spin off consumer electronics, because then you could have gone out potentially and become kind of, you know, in lots of different devices. at the moment, you're very restricted to microsoft, and that must be for a man of your ambition, surely, for the ambition of the technology, a little bit of a hold-back. >> we are in agreement for third

parties. siri runs it, for example. so a lot of companies -- facebook runs the bing translation software to handle translating things in realtime on facebook. it is this ability to say we don't have to necessarily power everything everyone does, but where it makes sense. where we have technology that really not many other folks on the planet have at our scale. pushing it out there across the whole industry is, we think, actually one of the most exciting things we could be doing. >> what about yahoo! stefan? there's a question of how long before the partnership marissa mayer might be. are you confident she'll stay with it? >> you'll have to ask marissa, but it's a great partnership. both of the shares are solid. it's the ability for us to power that experience and then to innovate on the front end, it's really powerful. >> all right. stefan weitz, we wait with baited breath to get a glimpse of cortana. >> i have it right here. >> everybody is running to the nasdaq to get that. jon fortt, thank you, as always, for adding so much value for us.

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welcome back. take a look at the nasdaq. it's off of its lows of the session, but still pretty near them. down 69 points in just a couple of hours into trade this morning. some of the biggest movers are earnings names -- bed, bath & beyond, alexin and alumina. samen? from swimming to sleeping, tech consumers are tracking

their everyday activities, of course, through the help of gadgets. wearable fitness tech is clearly on the rise. and you might know names like fitbit or jawbone or the fuel band, but our next guest is hoping to stand out in quite a crowded field. sonny vu is the ceo of misfit wearables that he co-founded with john sculley in 2011. welcome. >> thank you. great to be here. >> so let's dive into it. let's have a look -- and kayla is demonstrating the source of device you have. >> and a great honor. >> yes. importantly, this is a circle of -- correct me if i'm wrong, a circle of steel, you can put in many different applications. >> that's right. it's a metal disk we made that's made to be elegant so it can be worn everywhere. >> you have one -- >> yes, one on my jacket, and you tap it, and the lights turn on to tell you how well you've been doing for the day. i've been sitting around, so i haven't gotten that many points. it's easy to wear. >> and now, the entire world knows because you're on television.

>> what is the aim here? so design ahead of everything else? >> you know, we wanted to make something that people can wear anywhere on their body, any occasion. and not make another, you know, piece of plastics you'd have to affix on your body, but something that's elegant. >> i'm sorry, does it do what all the others do? >> yep. steps, calories, distance, sl p sleep, food. you know, the same things, except we think it's just more elegant. >> sonny, where is this headed, because fitbit has the app with the iphone 5s, the chip that will track my steps, calories, things like that, right within the phone. will you have to turn into more of a software company versus hardware as these things get integrated into phones and maybe watches? >> a great question. you know, activity tracking will get conflated into a number of devices, including watches, phones, that all have the tracking capability. ultimately, it's about wearability. you know, it's hard to wear your phone in many cases.

you can't really swim with the iphone. you can't really swim with many of the other devices either, because they're not waterproof. you can swim with shine. you know, there will be situations where it's hard to wear things like smartwatches and smartphones. >> we often openly wonder why apple has not made a foray into the wearable space, despite speculation for years at this point. what were the conversations you had with john sculley that led to the creation and design of this exact product that we're wearing in. >> we wanted to make products wearables, and maybe some products not wearable, that would serve us rather than us serving technology. it always feels like we've got to configure things and, you know, just mess with technology. whereas, things that are on our body, things ambient in our lives, in our homes, that can function passively, i think that's where this internet of things world is headed. >> the bigger question is, can you get world domination as an independent, when samsung is launching the watch as part of the ecosystem.

is the distribution there, or do you sit around hoping a google will buy you? >> you know, we built misfit to be a stand-alone company. if someone wants to buy us, then we're obviously open to those conversations. i think there's space for the little guys to start, you know. google, facebook, all of the great companies had to start somewhere. google certainly wasn't the first search engine, but, i don't know, maybe the last. >> good to meet you, sonny. thank you very much for coming in. sonny wu, the c.o. of misfit wearables. extremely elegant, it has to be said. we want to count you down to the close in the u.k. and across europe. physica first, a look at the nasdaq chart. at the lows of the session. some of the momentum stocks keep falling. >> let's get to it, then. have a look at western europe as they close out for the thursday session. and you'll see that it's in negative territory. it's been tricky trades throughout the session. various earnings coming through. the big debate continues to be

whether or not the european central bank is going to embark on qe. and it's interesting that the ecb's main hawk, and the brundesbanc downplaying the threats he sees with regard to deflation, talking to cnbc europe's annette visback, what he says is, yes, a lack of deflation in europe, but one that will reverse itself, because the present situation is due more or less to where you have falling energy prices, and ultimately the medium term, he says, will indicicate that inflation is not that -- or disinflation is not that serious a threat. take a listen. >> the question is to what extent does the incoming data affect the medium term inflation outlook. and that's where there was some unclarity at our last meeting, and that's why we thought it would be useful to wait until new datapoints arrive to see

whether our medium term deflation outlook is effective. >> you're saying the next data point for inflation data will be the last months, then? >> you know, it's not that easy. there are always numerous factors that enter the assessment. the next inflation data is certainly important. but what matters is to what extent this data affects our medium term inflation outlook. >> the head of the bank there making it less likely that there will be qe in europe. >> certainly an interesting interview. important comments for the market today across the pond. thank you, simon. coming up on cnbc, we'll have more on the accelerating losses in the nasdaq this morning, thus the ceo of pfizer. he rarely speaks out, but today talking exclusively to cnbc, pfizer ceo and phrma chairman ian read, who will join us live in a few minutes, that when "squawk on the street" comes back.

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welcome back. we want to show you the nasdaq chart, as it's escalating further into the red. it's now down 72 points. the market has given up all of its gains yesterday on the nasdaq. yesterday, up nearly 71 points. today, at its worst, simon, down 78 points, led largely again by biotech. this is something that art cashin has always focused on, and in every single downturn we've had, it's been beased on the biotech leading the sell-off. and a "market flash" with seema mody. >> hi, simon, talking about the momentum stocks getting hit.

take a look at netflix. the selling continues when you look at that stock, down over 3% today. now, since hitting its high of $458 a share on march 11th, it has lost nearly 25% of its value. of course, netflix one of the big winners in 2013, as well. that stock now down about 2.6% in today's trade. kayla? >> all right, thank you so much, seema. i know a lot of investors are watching netflix, and that stock has been one of the most closely followed during this market volatility. the nasdaq has been taking a hit, as we just mentioned. i know we'll have sheila on with us in a second. we also heard this morning important comments from imf managing director christine lagarde and the president of the world bank. we'll get to those in a moment. first, now up to sheila and hear what traders are saying about today's move. sheila? >> hey there, kayla. what a day to start off the nasdaq. we're reversing the gains we've seen in the past two days. here's what has traders worried.

they're saying within the first 30, 40 minutes of the session, we pulled back everything we took an entire session to gain yesterday. so it's really the velocity of the selling that's concerning traders here, the fact we can't find any confirmation of the bottom. when you look at what is dragging the nasdaq down, it is the usual suspects. take a look at the nasdaq biotech index, now down more than 3.5%, nearly 4% on the session. also, all of the momentum names, all of the high flyers we like to talk about -- netflix, tesla, priceline -- all down more than 2%, and large-cap tech, google, amazon, apple starting out in the green today, reversing direction now. a lot of red on the screens. again, what traders are really concerned about here is how quickly we pulled back from all of the gains that we worked very hard to get in the past couple of days. that velocity, that no confirmation of a bottom, that's what's the focus of nasdaq trading today. >> okay, sheila, thank you very much for that. the imf managing director christine lagarde spoke to our own sarah eisen on the future of the economy on an important day

for the world bank and imf and central bankers in d.c. sarah joins us live from washington with more. sarah? >> good to see you, simon and kayla. clearly the backdrop is more upbeat than it has been in previous years before the financial crisis. it's something that don lagarde acknowledged, but there's this collective frustration of why world growth is 3.6%, almost six years since the financial crisis, and whose fault it is and who needs to take the next policy to stimulate growth. some talk the europeans need to act sooner to address the low inflation problem. you heard jack lew, the treasury secretary of the united states, talking about surplus countries like germany needing to stimulate their economy. the chinese letting the exchange rate flow freely. i asked christine lagarde, are there arguments between the policymakers. here's what she told me. >> my hope is that the imf can play a role in taking them one step further. pointing fingers only takes you

so far. identifying how one can help each other while at the same time helping its own economy, that's what matters. and that's the 2% journey that the australians have identified. we are helping in that regard. >> the australians taking over the presidency of g-20. more policy coordination, something she talked a lot about that she would like to see. but she does give specific recommendations about what needs to happen, even if it is controversial, and at the top of the list -- simon, i know you've been talking about that, is the european central bank needing to act. have a listen. >> i prefer to talk about durable, very low inflation, and that's a risk. it's a risk, because it's a threat against growth. it's a threat against jobs. and it makes the servicing of debt quite heavy. so we are very encouraged to see that the ecb has acknowledged that risk and is prepared to

take every appropriate measures to fight against it. >> so you can see downplaying some of the tension there between the ecb and the imf. but clearly, there's work to be done. that's the message from christine lagarde. that's the message from policymakers. finance ministers come here, central bankers come here, janet yellen, mario draghi, to talk about what they can do, because it is frustrating we're in this place, simon and kayla, several years since the financial crisis. while there might not be an imminent threat crisis, the last time we were here, the threat of a u.s. government default or perhaps european debt crisis, there are still huge problems -- trust in the system, is how she put it. >> sarah, a busy morning for you. thank you so much for the interviews. sarah eisen in d.c. again, the eyes on nasdaq, giving back all of yesterday's gains. more on that in a moment. you'll see what the chart is doing today. the ceo of pfizer. he rarely speaks, but today talking to cnbc in an exclusive

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verge of bursting? we'll look for the warning signs with an ipo expert from renaissance. do you have the guts to invest in what was once the riskiest place in the market? bill miller does. but do the traders? that's straight ahead on "the half" from post 9 behind me. >> good stuff, scott, thank you. the biopharmaceutical industries are gathering today in washington for pharma's annual meeting. let's head there where meg has an exclusive guest. meg, take it away. >> thanks, kayla. i'm here at the pharma conference, joined by the incoming chairman and the chairman and ceo of pfizer, ian read. welcome. thank you so much for joining us. >> pleasure to be here, meg. >> as you're taking over this new role, tell us what is mission number one for you in this industry this year. >> mission number one is to continue to keep pharma focused on creating public efficacy and public policies that allow companies like pfizer to do what they do best, which is discover and bring innovative products to

patients, and included in that is reimbursement policies, i.p. policies, and access and regulatory policies. >> let's talk about access and its pricing, especially, because this has been a huge issue. the pharma industry has been getting heat, most specifically from congress. in the u.s., are drug prices too high? >> i don't think you can look at prices in isolation. we don't -- it may appear we sell a pill, but the pill is just an artifact. it's an artifact of 15 years of research and risk. so i think when you look at pricing, you have to look at value. and you have to look -- the whole constellation of both access, insurance, and the value we need to continue to invest in research. >> are patients able to access those drugs at the prices where they are now? >> well, patients, if they have good insurance -- and that's what insurance is for -- they can access those drugs. if they don't have good insurance, or they have no insurance, in the united states, pharmaceutical industry stands ready to provide drugs.

pfizer, particularly, i think in the last five years, we've given aw away, like, 31 million prescriptions. nobody in the u.s. who has bad insurance or no insurance need go without pfizer's products. >> well, then, let's talk about the affordable care act, because that's aiming to ameliorate the situation, people with bad insurance or no insurance. how is that affecting your business and your industry? >> well, initially, it's not affecting us. most of the people, i understand from the analysis, have gone into the exchanges, have already been transferred from one insurance to another. there's very few new insured. so there's no gain for us in the affordable care act in that sense. what i am worried about is the insurance coverage in the exchanges for pharmaceuticals is not good. there's a large deductible. often the deductible is biehned with other elements of deductibles for hospitalizations, so you'll find patients that perhaps have to spend up to $2,500 or $5,000 before they get the first dollar

of pharmaceuticals reimbursed. this is not good insurance. >> is there something the industry needs to be doing about that, to ameliorate that situation? >> they're advocating for policy changes. they're advocating that society look at the value of what the pharmaceutical industry brings, the value of the products and ensures that insurance is high-quality insurance. >> let's talk about reputation, because i know when you came in as ceo in 2010, that was one of the four tenets you outlined, is the reputation of phrma and pfizer. and we saw a gallop poll that pfizer's image had fallen, worst that government and banking and media. so tell us, why is this image problem affecting pharma, and what can you do to fix it? >> it's a complex question, one i've struggled with my whole career in farm mpharma. i think it's a complex issue of we're visible on pricing. it's very difficult for us to

have conversations with patient and society. most of our conversations are with regulators and with physicians. my ideal for our reputation, which is important for us, is if i go onto the street and i ask a man on the street or a person on the street why do you need a pharmaceutical industry? and they say to me, because i believe they produce medicines that will improve my life and my children's lives. if we can achieve that, which is true, we will have improved our reputation. >> why do you think has led to the situation that you've lost the public's respect in some ways? >> well, i think it's short-term discussions, it's complex issues about all drugs represent benefit and risk. very often what's heard more is the risk than the benefit. it takes 14 years to get a drug to market. value has to be recuperated to keep the system going. so complex issues that, you know, it's very difficult in a five-minute interview to

explain. but the net-net is in pfizer and all of the industry, huge number of people are dedicating their lives to finding cures. >> well, we don't have much time left. i want to ask you about the breast cancer drug, presented the data earlier this week. the data looked positive, the study met its goals, but the stock fell 3%. did the street miss the picture here? did they get it wrong? >> you never know who's in your stock and why they're there in your stock. it is for advanced breast cancer for estrogen-positive her2 negative, no advances for 15 years in that category. we double the progression-free survival from ten months to 20 months, and we're working with the agency to bring this medicine to patients as fast as we can. >> absolutely. and you got breakthrough designation on that. can you get accelerated approval? >> well, the breakthrough designation allows you to have conversations with the fda, allows you to facilitate

acceleration. we are working with them, we're us discussing it with them, it's a complex issue, and we'll continue to discuss it with them with the goal of getting the product to patients as fast as possible. >> ian read, the incoming chairman of phrma and ceo of pfizer, thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> back to you guys. >> thank you, meg and mr. read. meg, that's what we would call a big get and a well done one at that. the nasdaq giving up all of yesterday's gains and more. some big moves on the market this thursday morning. details and analysis when "squawk on the street" returns. . baron of the build-out. you need a permit... to be this awesome. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (aaron) purrrfect. (vo) meee-ow, business pro. meee-ow.

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welcome back to "squawk on the street." tracking this big sell-off today, health care is an underperformer due to the sell-off we're seeing in the biotechs. the biotech nasdaq currently trading down better than 3.5%. among the big movers today, clovis, celgene, alexion, biogen, so the volatility continues in the biotech names, simon. >> seema, thank you. let's bring in art cashin. what are your thoughts as you see that yet again? >> i think they're somewhat vulnerable. the nasdaq has given back basically all of yesterday's gain, and that has a good degree of significance. i think the viewers want to watch if we break the nasdaq composite breaks 4,100.

that may bring in some residual selling. certainly if we break 4,050, then i think you may get some anxiety selling, people saying, "wait a minute, this isn't working. this bounce has been a false bounce." now, i'll throw in a little bit of wall street folk lore, having done this 50 years, but traditionally it is assumed that the thursday before option expiration week has a higher rate of volatility than almost any other day. and probably 70% likelihood of being down. >> but you have cautioned before on what happens when biotech leads a sell-off. do you think there's any reason to believe there's anything more auspicious going on beyond just that folklore? >> the thing that's troubling to me is take a look at the 10-year. you know, it's gone beyond the short covering and even some of the flight-to-safety. i mean, we are down at levels that give at least a vague hint, if not a warning, that the economy may be beginning to

sputter in here. so i think the viewers have to keep watching that 10-year. if it continues to rally, it's got a stronger signal going on than perhaps we wanted. >> so watch 4,100, and tomorrow you expect to be volatile, as well, or get through today first? >> well, today has the history behind it. if we break 4,100, tomorrow could be volatile, for sure. >> art cashin, always our reserve player here on "squawk on the street." thank you for coming in and helping us out here. as we mentioned, the nasdaq is in the middle of a big sell-off. more on which ones to be watching. first, rick santelli, the move in the 10-years, we'll have rick on after the break. can you start tomorrow?

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well, welcome back to "squawk on the street." thursday's edition, a treasu treasury-inspired tradition of the "santelli exchange." you just heard the man, art cashin, talk about the 10-year. you should be watching it. you're darn right, you ought to be watching it. i'll tell you what. before we get to the meat of this, let's show a couple of charts. the first chart i want you to see is a march 1st chart of

10-year, because that's where we're hovering of current yields, the lowest close in a little over a month. if you look at the 30-year, we'll close at a place we haven't closed since basically the fourth of july of 2013. but maybe the most important chart, especially -- especially after the minutes yesterday were highlighted to try to walk back miscommunications between the market and the federal reserve! and i'll tell you what, if that is the case, boy, maybe they need a really big billboard next time, because this yield curve is flat! the reason it's flattened, why it's important, because if you're a fed official, you're going to be talking a whole lot more about deflation. why? because when the yield curve flattened when rates go down, when the yield curve flattens when rates go up, when flattening is the operative word, that is, as art cashin pointed out, painting a rosy, long-term outlook for the economy. if you have a strategy in its

fifth year, and even though you are winding down quantitative easing, and it will get wound down, so say many fed followers, they want out of this plan, but the zero interest rate policy side, the entire policy side, has to be under review. and the only way it shouldn't be under review is if you sell it as a deflationary issue, where you can keep trying the same thing that isn't working. because once you remove that, and it really shouldn't be the main focus, what you have left is that if anything were to happen -- if stocks were to have a bigger downside and the only hedge is the treasury market -- where do they go next for an encore? how do they ease? how do they deal with any market disruptions? policy should have been normalized already, and we're paying a price for it. don't ignore the long end and don't buy into deflation. it's telling you potentially recessionary-type pressures building. simon, back to you. >> we can hear a lot about it over the weekend with the world bank imf meetings. rick, thank you very much. rick santelli in chicago.

let's have a quick look at where we are on the markets. the nasdaq still having a rough day. look at that, down almost 2%. >> we also want to take a quick check on allied, down 2.5%, the big ipo. scott wapner and the crew will pick it up there. scott, a busy hour coming up. >> yeah, no doubt, kayla. what a turn of events after yesterday's gain. the best in three weeks. and now you've got the rollover again that you guys have been covering for much of the last couple of hours. >> that's right. no, i know a lot of people watching that sell-off very closely, and who better than your traders to pick it up from there? >> we appreciate it, guys. have a great rest of the day. welcome to "halftime" show. message of the markets -- one day after the biggest gain in week, stocks are sliding again. so how long is this volatility going to last? ipo frenzy. the busiest week of '07, a sign of a growing bubble? burying the hatchet. with icahn and ebay striking